A review by ste3ve_b1rd
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

4.0

This book is as much a workbook as it is a work of nonfiction.  In Robin D'Angelo's view, most white people are unaware of their own whiteness; of seeing themselves as racially white.  White people are socialized to be racist and to unconsciously take part in structural racism in their everyday lives -- As institutionalized racism has existed ever since the founding of the USA.  I don't see how any white person can read this book without realizing that, at a bare minimum, they have to recognize their own racism -- Before they can do anything that contributes to eradicating their racism.  The biggest challenge that the author brings up repeatedly throughout this work, after all -- Is that white people refuse to accept the fact that they are racist, because "it's not nice to be a racist", "racists are bad people", "I marched in the 60s", "I'm colorblind"; the list goes on.  But you can't become anti-racist -- Unless you know that you are racist.  There's white people I know, among my fellow whites, who've already evolved enough to accept the responsibility required to eliminate their racism.  There are other whites I know, who will probably never change; they'll take their white privilege for granted forever and continue to reside within the comfort of the status quo -- Within the bubble of their allegiance to white solidarity, superiority and supremacy.  And so the question remains: How many white people are going to be up to this task?  Additionally, how is anything going to change if most white people are still living only with their own kind -- Within their racially polarized / segregated worlds?  It's not the familiarity that breeds contempt, when dealing with the racist division between whites and people of color -- It's more likely to be the unfamiliarity.  After reflecting on what I've absorbed after reading this book, I'm left with the overwhelming impression that white people, including myself -- Still have a lot of work to do, in order to let go, get over, leave behind and transcend their racist conditioning / racist practices.  In closing: working towards a solution to end racism ultimately depends upon whether or not -- White people can even acknowledge the fact that racism lives within them; white people cannot move beyond their racism, until they recognize, and come to terms with, the ongoing existence and inherent toxicity of their racism.